CAPTAIN PINEDA: CHAPTER 19: Down the Middle

It didn't take long for Tommy to give the order to retake Jackson. The Legion was weaken. It no longer had the skies. The A-10 Thunderbolts were able to take out all of the Legion's aircraft. Baker Company could no longer provide air support, they ran out of fuel. They later found themselves in an abandon airport not far from Jackson.

Tommy would use the tanks as artillery support, so they would stay at the community center. The soldiers went down five roads. Captain Pineda's squad was ordered to lead the front. They were in the middle road.

"Men," Tommy began saying on a speaker, "I know that you're tired, but we cannot let all that loss go done in vain. Push forward, retake Jackson. I know that you will not let me down. Good luck out there."

"Alright," the Captain began, "let's go."

His squad went to their assigned lane. Captain Pineda turned around and saw Joel not being able to keep up. Joel had one hand on his head and the other on the rifle. "Can you keep up, Joel?" the Captain asked.

"I should be fine." Joel told the Captain.

The road they were assigned to, wasn't opened spaced. Plenty of cover for the soldiers. Cover included rusted cars, houses, Legion planes, and wrecked APCs.

The whole Company of about 100 soldiers made their way down the road. It was quiet, too quiet. A legionary popped out of a second story window. He carried an RPG.

"RPG!" a soldier yelled. It was too late. The legionary fired the launcher. A handful of soldiers went flying.

"Got a man down over here!" an Assault soldier yelled.

Legionaries popped out of the windows, came out of their cover behind the wrecked APCs, and even out of houses.

Captain Pineda found cover and shot a legionary at a window. The legionaries threw smoke. All the soldiers stood there waiting for the legionaries to pop out. Lieutenant Cruz pulled out his machete.

"Ahhh!" legionaries yelled as they rushed at the soldiers. A handful of soldiers were caught off guard. The legionaries carried bayonets attached to their rifles. Charging towards them, the bayonets penetrated the soldiers' vests.

The legionaries' charge were as if a tackle. The soldiers that were bayoneted fell towards the floor and yelled in pain. The legionaries pulled out the bayonets and tried to fight. Majority of the chargers were shot after they penetrated their fellow soldiers.

A legionary charged towards Cruz, he reacted quickly and stabbed him in the chest with his machete. The legionary drew his final breath. The legionary fell on his knees. Cruz kept one hand on the machete and the other on the legionary's helmet. Cruz pulled out the machete. The legionary fell to his left.

Lieutenant Mendieta saw another legionary charging towards him, he smacked him with stock of his rifle and tackled the son of a bitch. From there he grabbed his knife and placed it in the legionary's throat.

The legionaries gave up the charge and started engaging on the soldiers. A soldier behind cover, got up and yelled, "For the Republic!" the soldier signaled his fellow soldiers to move up.

"Ah!" the soldier yelled as his helmet was shot off. He fell and a nearby soldier check if he was fine. Soldiers from that line got up. They ran towards the enemy, sprayed and ran.

"Let's go!" a soldier running said.

About 20 of the front line soldiers ran. "Ahh!" a soldier yelled as he was shot and hit the floor. Another two hit the floor. A legionary had a good time taking out the soldiers. One of the legionaries had just finished taking out a soldier rushing at him. He quickly turned towards his right, but was flank by a soldier carrying a machete. The soldier swung the machete and hit the legionary in the neck.

The legionary fell. The soldier grabbed his rifle and continued firing. Soldiers behind this particular soldier began to push foward. The legionary defense had been broken.

A soldier had made his way toward a whole platoon of legionaries. However this particular soldier was a Heavy Trooper. Heavy Troopers are soldiers that carry heavy machine guns, such as a minigun. The soldier looked like a Support. However he carried a huge ammo bag behind him. He had a riot visor over his face, and extra armor plating on his chest.

"Make way for the heavy!" the heavy trooper said as began spinning up his minigun. Firing as many bullets as possible. The platoon didn't have a chance. Blood was everywhere. They all fell. Allen admired the heavy trooper. "HAHA!" the heavy trooper laughed. However he was too cocky, he was shot right through his helmet. He fell back and hit the floor.

"The heavy is down!" a soldier yelled.

"Move up!" a soldier yelled. It was Commander Jett.

Captain Pineda noticed him. He got near him behind cover. "Still want to lead the front I see, Commander."

"You got that right, Captain." The Commander said as he cocked his rifle. "Let's do this." He moved out of cover, Captain Pineda joined him.

However Allen had got his hands on a new toy. It was the minigun. Before the Captain and the Commander could even aim down their sights there wasn't any more legionaries.

"Get some, Sarg!" a soldier blurted.

The Legion had one more opportunity to turn the tables. The soldiers had already reached the gate near the destroyed APC. Two APCs came out ready to fire. Along with some riot legionaries.

"Ah shit, don't have anymore rockets." Lieutenant Mendieta admitted.

"Everyone down!" the Commander ordered.

The soldiers did as they were told. As they began to receive fire the Commander pulled out a radio. "Foxtrot 1 to Foxtrot 2-2, requesting some support, over?"

"Commander, what are your coordinates?" asked Foxtrot 2-2.

"Whisky Tango Foxtrot Niner."

"Copy that, firing for affect. Danger Close."

A huge air cracking sound filled the air. The soldiers behind cover turned their heads toward three tank shells. The look on the legionaries' eyes was if he had just saw their mom's die all of sudden. The shells hit the APCs. The APCs exploded and the surrounding legionaries went flying forward.

The soldiers behind cover, mantled over the cover. The aimed at the legionaries before they could get up, some were just dead. Soldiers came from both the right and left side. Those soldiers were from the other companies. The legionaries had no choice but to surrender.

The soldiers disarmed the legionaries and threw their equipment, helmets and their weapons into individual piles. There was about 15, now arrested legionaries. The soldiers handcuffed them and told them to turn around and look at the wall. About five soldiers stood guard near the legionaries.

"We did it Captain, we won."

Captain Pineda turned around and look at the Commander. "Won what, Commander?"

"The battle, it's a Texan victory," Commander Jett stated.

"Commander, what just happened here, is an act of war."

"The Fireflies aren't strong, last I checked their leader is dead, and there is probably a power struggle in the Firefly government."

"Commander, I have been in Jackson for a while, I heard what has been going on, the Fireflies aren't a republic anymore, and they have been expanding their territory. This 'Firefly Empire' must be stopped. I am in no doubt that the Texan Congress will declare war on the Fireflies."

"We'll see, Captain," Commander Jett said as he walked away from Captain Pineda and went to General Tommy. Tommy had just arrived to congratulate the soldiers on the success on retaking Jackson.

Tommy congratulated each soldier. The soldiers celebrated their victory. From a distant you could hear the dragging of a pole. Soldiers were dragging the pole all the way to the gate. Some soldiers made a hole for the pole. The put in the 20 foot pole in the hole. The pole was a flag pole. The raised the Texan flag in honor of the victory.

Surrounding soldiers saluted the flag as it was being raised.

There was movement near the wreckage of the APC. Joel was the only one to notice it. He walked closer to it. A metal plate was lifted up and was pushed aside. It was a legionary. He was in a prone stance, weaken. The glass of his riot visor was broken.

He had lots of blood on his face, the legionary finally spoke.

"Joel, it's me," the legionary began, "I was the first Firefly you saw when you opened your eyes."

The legionary was familiar. It was the legionary who was there when he woke up.

This legionary had not just been there, he interrogated him, tortured him, and did things that Joel didn't know possible. Joel cocked the rifle.

"That's right," the legionary said, "kill me, but remember, don't trust them." The legionary smiled at Joel. Joel dropped his gun. A surrounding soldier grabbed the proned legionary and put him with the rest. Captain Pineda noticed his odd behavior. Brown, the Recon, walked up to him.

"Joel, you okay?" Brown asked.

"GET AWAY FROM ME!" Joel yelled and punched the soldier. Joel found a rock and smashed it on Brown's nose. The soldier fell. Brown didn't have his rifle to shoot Joel.

"Get him!" Lieutenant Mendieta ordered. He pointed at Joel and ran at him. Surrounding soldiers surrounded Joel.

"Come get me!" Joel yelled.

About five soldiers surrounded Joel. They all rushed him. Joel moved so that two of the soldiers would run into each other.

"Ah!" a soldier yelled as he punched Joel in the face. Joel punched the soldier, grabbed his arm and broke it. "Ahh!" the soldier yelled. He pushed the soldier onto the floor. A soldier got behind Joel and grabbed him. Lieutenant Mendieta punched him in the face multiple times. He even uppercutted his ass, and he still wasn't knocked out.

Joel struggled and was still filled with energy. Anderson pulled out the morphine from his backpack and injected it into Joel's neck. Joel calmed down and passed out. Two soldiers next to Joel grabbed him and dragged him to the county jail.

"Anderson," Lieutenant Mendieta began, "pretty sure you're a medic, need you to check if Brown is okay. Let's not forget the other one with a broken arm."

"Yes, sir, I am a medic. Will get it done." Anderson said.

Captain Pineda walked up to Anderson. "That's going to be hard to fix." He told the soldier with a broken arm.

"Ah, dam, it still stings. That guy, sure can fight, broke my fucken arm, don't know when I'll be able to get back in the fight."

"I say about 6 months." Captain Pineda told the soldier.

"Sounds like a long time." The soldier said.

Anderson finished up with Brown, it was nothing major for Brown. Just a cut down his nose. All Anderson had to do was stitch his cut back together.

"Well, this one is going to be harder. Come with me." Anderson offered his hand towards the soldier. The soldier used his non-broken arm to grab Anderson hand. "Let's go, we are going somewhere with the materials I need to fix your arm. Let's try that house." Anderson pointed to a nearby house.

"You got it doc." The soldier told Anderson. The two walked into a house in order to fix the soldiers arm.

"Captain!"

Captain Pineda turned around. It was Commander Jett.

"Do want to head towards Jackson Hole Airport?"

"Why? What's going on Commander?"

"Well Baker Company ran out of fuel and landed there, along with the other planes. They had just recently contacted me, they're running out of ammo and are in need of reinforcements."

"Why? What's going on, why do they need reinforcements?"

"Well, General Tommy has just informed me that the airport is crawling with inflected. So now I am going to take a platoon of soldiers to help the pilots fight off the inflected. What do you say? Just like odd time's sake, let's not forget your Lieutenant, Cruz. "

"I'm in" the Captain said. The platoon soon prepared to leave Jackson and head to Jackson Hole Airport.